Round 11: Tomi Walamies vs. Diego Ostrovich

Aaron Forsythe

Both Finland's Tomi Walamies and Argentina's Diego Ostrovich had fantastic seasons last year, earning berths in the Magic Invitational. Since then, Ostrovich has been having a pretty good year, showing that he is here to stay. Walamies, on the other hand, has been ready to pack it up for the past few months; a string of poor finishes has had him ready to retire. After this event, he's going to have to reconsider.

Game 1

Walamies Goblin deck did what it was supposed to, dropping out a Skirk Prospector and a Sparksmith early, and using the former to accelerate out a turn-3 Clickslither.

Ostrovich, through Walamies' bludgeoning attacks and his own fetchlands, found himself at five life before he put his first creature on the table. Walamies showed the South American who was boss when he dropped a Menacing Ogre, forcing the scoop. Quite the quick and bloody game.

Walamies 1 – Ostrovich 0

Game 2

Walamies attacked with a Skirk Prospector turn 2 only to see it die at the hands of a Vitality Charm-spawned Insect. Diego played a Lightning Rift on his turn and passed.

Walamies played Thoughtbound Primoc on turn three, and it was quite evident why "the Littlest Serendib" is in favor this weekend: he doesn't die easily to Lightning Rift. That, and there are no Wizards to be found in the environment. Of course, Ostrovich showed why Chain of Plasma was in his deck, killing the flier with little effort.

Walamies played out a big ol' Goblin Goon, but Ostrovich had the ubiquitous Broodhatch Nantuko at the ready. Walamies had a better play in store, however—Rorix Bladewing.

Ostrovich had a little game, but in the end, how can you stop the big Dragon? Without Contested Cliffs, Ostrovich had no outs, and died in three hits.

Final Result: Walamies 2 – Ostrovich 0

Tomi Walamies is now 10-1 and about as much of a lock for the Top 8 as you can be.

He said as he left the table, "I would like to send greetings to the staff at my school, Mikkeli School of Economics."

Aaron Forsythe was a professional Magic player and Internet columnist prior to leaving Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to join Wizards of the Coast. His first duty here was Content Manager of this very website, a job that required him to do actual work as opposed to playing games all the time. So when a position opened in R&D, he jumped at the chance. He is now director of Magic R&D, and still plays Magic in his free time when he's not busy playing Magic.